Startup Monday: Share in a Better Way with Buffer

Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on, or have worked with in the past & would like to share with friends and followers of ABCey Events! In today’s Startup Monday, we highlight Buffer, a smarter way to share on social media!

Being an event professional can be overwhelming at times. To top it all off, you have to worry about social media marketing? The struggle is real! The downside of posting on social media is that you can’t be on all the time, so being able to schedule your posts can be a huge help. Well, what better way than to do all that than with Buffer? Buffer helps to manage your social media all on one platform by scheduling posts and is great for teams!

Features of Buffer

Schedule Your Posts For Later

This is the most important feature out of everything that Buffer has to offer. Ease your mind by scheduling your social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google Plus! You can also make sure your team shares posts during specific times to drive the most traffic to your website. Stay on schedule and keep those posts coming!

Collaborate With Your Team

Avoid posting at the same time on social media with other team members! You definitely don’t want to flood your followers with a bunch of spam. Instead, collaborate smoothly and effortlessly! You’ll be able to see what your team members have lined up and can easily manage collaborations.

Identify Insights

Get the stats you need to track how you’re doing! Buffer helps you to easily visualize your social media growth. Through this, you’ll be able to track reader engagement and trends. This will not only let you know what your readers like, but also helps you to get to know your readers better.

There are over 2,500+ businesses using this web and mobile app already! Will you be using Buffer next? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

3 Event Networking Apps to Upgrade Your Experience

Over 40 million Americans attend a convention, trade show, or a conference each year. For the attendee, one of the greatest benefits of a business conference is the unlimited access to networking. This is an excellent way to create lasting business relationships, while maximizing on career opportunities and potential. However, in an ocean full of people, how are you supposed to network with the RIGHT ones and how do you sustain these relationships? In the year of tech, there is always a solution, and this solution can be found right at your fingerprints. These 3 networking apps are the greatest new addition to your cellular device and your networking career!

1. SUMMITSYNC

For all of our LinkedIn readers you will be very pleased, SummitSync utilizes your LinkedIn login as it’s backbone to connect you to your conference. Once you’re logged in, select your conference and merely swipe left or right across the attendee list to connect with fellow participants who you are interested in networking with. Once a mutual connection is made you are offered a platform of capabilities like in-house messaging, email accessibility, and calendaring tools! Enterprise customer relationship management (CRM) tools also become available and ensure company productivity by recording clientele data to optimize interactions. Oh, and once April hits Google maps and location services will be accessible with the app to cover all grounds!

2. CAMCARD

For all of our earth friendly readers, this is the app for you! There’s no longer a need to bring 20+ business cards to your next networking event when CamCard is just a click a way. Allow CamCard to store your business card so you can go paperless to events while you virtually exchange information at your next meeting, trade show, and/or seminar. Contact cards are quickly and easily stored into the database and provide management efficiency with features like notes, reminders, quick searches, tagging and sharing, and most importantly productivity. Enjoy the convenience of accessing this information anytime and anywhere with iCloud on all of your database platforms.

3. CHARLIE

While attempting to impress a prospective business relation or employer, you may have competition with the 3 other individuals who are just as prepared and just as interested. However, what your competitors may not have is Charlie, which literally will put you two steps ahead of the game. The Charlie app provides virtual insight prior to any interaction that will enable you to make a lasting impression. Forgot you scheduled a meeting in the midst of the weekend? No worries. This app understands the hectic agenda of a professional and will send you email reminders with pertinent research to ensure you’re fully prepared to present yourself to the best of your ability. Charlie ensures that you’re maximizing all possible opportunities, without you even having to ask!

Which one of these networking apps will you be using at your upcoming conference this year? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter!

Best Practices in Leveraging Social Media to Expand your Network

As event planners, we are constantly interacting with large networks of professionals and meeting different influencers. If you’re a professional of any kind, you’ve likely had to walk the fine line between seeming desperate and building a healthy network. Luckily, leveraging the right social media tools will help you connect with the contacts you have made, without being intrusive. Here are some tips we’ve put together on how to best use social media to help expand your network!

1. Identify Your Target Influencers:

Try focusing on connecting with people in a profession that’s relevant to yours. This way, you won’t waste your time on people that don’t have an impact to your business anyway. You might find your target influencers on social media or industry events. so take a peek at industry publications or get recommendations from your colleagues.

2. Use Twitter:

Most accounts on Twitter are public and therefore easy to find. Look up your target influencers and send them a tweet. Fully exploit your 140 characters. The more personality you give your tweet, the more chance they reply!

3. Use Linkedin:

Linkedin is the biggest online network of professionals. Sometimes, it is not possible to “connect” directly to a person if you don’t know them personally. In this case, you can easily join a group that your target influencer is part of and participate in discussions to call to their attention. You can also send connection requests using the group, which doesn’t make you seem like a stalker!

4. Write a Personal Email:

Email addresses are often challenging to find, but if you have actually located an email address, write a message – but make sure to keep it short. Illustrate exactly what you want and get to the point quickly. Including that you like your influencers’ work or point of view is a great way to obtain their attention. This way they can see that you’re genuinely interested in them and they would be more are likely to share perspectives and advises.

Have any of these social media tactics worked for you?

Tell us about it or share other ways to connect professionally with influencers in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

Social Media Do’s & Don’ts for Conferences!

Here at ABCey, we understand the importance of using Social Media for events! It can create better brand awareness and provides great marketing without too much hassle. However, if used in the wrong manner social media can actually hurt your event messaging! That is why we are bringing you our tips in order to make social media the not-so-silent star of your next event!

Do: Create Compelling Messaging | One of the most crucial parts of social media for conferences is to understand the mindset of the “perfect” attendee. You should brainstorm very specific details such as: age, gender, their goal of the conference, and which trade sites they follow. After completing this exercise every Facebook post, tweet, or photo shared should be done with this ideal attendee in mind!

Don’t: Tweet & Run | When planning a conference it is especially important to constantly keep attendees updated with all information and changes. If a conference goes silent it could loose guest engagement or worse, attendees! So keep your social media platform constant with Tweetdeck or Social OOmph to automate your postings! However, make sure to mix automated posts with those written in real time to keep it from looking too spammy!

Do: Vivid Graphics | Whether planning a conference or company party there should always be a single vivid image that is used. It is also especially important to have this graphic ready to go well in advance for it to be used on guest and press invitations, website, and all related social media postings. This SXSW flier is a great example of creating a unique image that will remind guests and translates the message well between differing social media sites.

Don’t: Abandon Accounts | A simple mistake that we see over and over with conferences is the abandonment of websites and social media between events. Your “perfect” attendee demands engagement all year long from their conferences and a platform with old information will not benefit anyone! A simple fix is to create a year-long content strategy for your social media sites so that everyone knows what’s happening ahead of time.

Do: Social Media Displays | During any given conference there are many different attendee touch points that can both benefit the conference and attendees. Creating a “Social Media Hub” display where all social media platforms convene in one place where everyone can see is important. It allows guests to engage with other attendees while sharing the happenings across the venue space! We especially love Tint and Eventstagram for live display feeds!

Do you have any social media tips that you use in conference planning?! Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook and Twitter!

Step it Up: The 5 Most Influential Words in Social Media

Social media is a strange and delicate thing. It has the potential to drive in hundreds of prospective customers or alienate you completely! ABCey helps you hone in on what’s important so YOU won’t be the one in a social media dead zone!

1. Share | Social media exists because people like to share and make connections! In the end, your goal is to successfully share your message with the world, and you love seeing “shared” and “retweeted” pop up on your notifications! Before you post, ask yourself, “would I share this with my friends?” If you don’t find it interesting, others probably won’t either!

2. Interaction | Tweeting can sometimes feel like sending messages off into the void of cyberspace. The only way to know what people think of your tweets is through interactions under the “connect” tab. If you’re not seeing as much interaction as you want, include language like “tell us your opinion” and “what do you think” to encourage your followers to respond. Also, try following those you think would be interested in what you say!

3. Reach | Your message can be witty, well-worded, and interactive, but it won’t matter if only 15 people see it! Below every post, Facebook will tell you home many people saw what you said, whether it was shared, on their news feed, or found through a friend. Beef up your reach by adding more people, especially people who are friends with those who “like” your page! Go on a friending rampage a few times a week and you’re sure to expand your audience in no time.

4. Network | LinkedIn and every other social media site are constantly encouraging you to expand your network with “people you may know” and “who to follow.” Our advice: listen to them!! Following someone on social media is a low-pressure way to keep in touch with someone and maintain relationships. You never know when you’ll want to reach out to them someday, and being “friends” is a good advantage to have!

5. Like| Whether you’re a company promoting a product or a teenager posting vacation pictures, you know that more “likes” is key! Like, duh. Amp up your liking potential by targeting the audience that will be most likely to generate business for you. When you start getting positive feedback (tons and tons of “likes!”), keep the momentum going!

What do you think of our social media tips? Agree? Disagree? Tell us your opinions! Leave us a comment or reach out to us on Facebook & Twitter!

10 Interesting Social Media Facts

Social media plays a huge role in our lives, whether we like it or not! To honor our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, ABCey compiled a list of the most interesting social media fun-facts. Enjoy!

1. Half of all smartphones connect to Facebook every hour of every day!

2. 20% of Google searches every day have never been searched before. Which begs the question: what the heck are you searching??

3. The most optimal photos (ones that get the most likes and repins) on Pinterest are photos of salad.

4. “Earlybird” is the most popular Instagram filter, yet 47% prefer #nofilter.

5. The average LinkedIn user is a male college graduate.

6. Twitter handles more search queries per month than Bing and Yahoo combined!

7. Links about sex are shared 90% more than any other link. (Doesn’t its inclusion on this list say it all?)

8. 53% of people on Twitter recommend products in their tweets, which is important because most people trust recommendations from friends versus the 14% of people who trust advertisers. Social media is more important to business than you’d think!

9. 7% of Americans have never heard of Facebook. We don’t know how this happened.

10. More than 350 million users suffer from Facebook Addiction Syndrome.

Want to channel some social media yourself? Tell us what you think of this article with a comment here or on Facebook & Twitter!